What do you use to unlock your mobile phone? A password? A fingerprint? Or simply a look?

On September 12th, 2017, Apple introduced its iPhone X, which has an eye-catching technology—Face ID. With Face ID, Apple says, you can unlock your new iPhone by just staring at it. It is supported by a so-called True Depth camera system built into the front of the iPhone X.

When the camera system sees a person’s face, it uses 30,000 dots (点) to map the shape and outline of the face. A mathematical model (数学模型) of the face will then be created and stored in the phone. The next time the person looks at the iPhone X, the same dots are mapped onto his or her face and compared to the stored model. If the two match, then the phone unlocks. This happens in less than a second.

Apple says the system is smart. If you change your hairstyle, put on sunglasses or make-up, or use the phone in the dark, Face ID still works.

Although the technology sounds fancy, there are still worries. For example, will Face ID work for twins? According to Apple, the chance of others to unlock your iPhone X using Face ID is one in a million. Face ID can tell the difference between twins, but the error rating rises. So one would need to set a password then.

Apple also says that Face ID only unlocks when you stare at it. So the phone won’t unlock if you are just looking at the phone for the time. It won’t work either if someone puts the phone at your sleeping face or your photo.

What might two dogs making radio programs look like? How about a bicycle race with different sea animals as competitors?

With Sora, you may soon be able to find out. The latest AI model can create videos up to a minute long from text prompts (提示词) in seconds. It was built by Open AI, the company behind the popular chatbot Chat GPT. Its CEO Sam Altman announced Sora's creation on February 16.

Sora hasn’t been made available to the public yet. Open AI is asking experts to test it for possible risks. The model is also open to a small group of artists. The company hopes their advice will help make Sora better.

Before Sora, the leading text-to-video AI model was one made by Runway. Its system, Gen-2, came out in March 2023. The videos it produced were short and often scary. So most people were surprised by the high quality of Sora’s videos.

At present, Sora model isn’t perfect, however, as it may not understand cause and effect (因果). “For example, a person might take a bite out of a cookie, but after that, the cookie may not have a bite mark,” Open AI says on its website. Sora may also mistake spatial (空间的) details, like mixing up left and right. In a video on the Open AI website, a man is seen running on a treadmill (跑步机) in the opposite direction. At the same time, some people have other worries. They fear that AI-generated content could be misused. The Global Risks Report 2024 listed AI-generated misinformation as the biggest risk facing the world this year. In response, Open AI said that it's also building tools to let users know if a video was produced by Sora. Whatever the worries, with the development of technology, Sora could go much farther than we think.

More and more car makers are introducing smart cars that can drive themselves. But as these cars take to the streets, we have to ask: are auto-pilot (自动领航) cars a step into a better future, or are they a step we’re not ready to take?

Not long ago, cars that drive themselves were just a dream. But now, with smart car makers like XPeng, Tesla and Xiaomi, that dream is closer to reality. Supporters of auto-pilotcars say that they can make our roads much safer and make it easier to travel. Most car accidents happen because people make mistakes or get sleepy, but the computers on cars don’t get tired. Many believe that self-driving cars can also help traffic move better and give people more time to do fun things while traveling.

However, even car makers admit that self-driving technology is not perfect—especially with the busy streets, traffic lights, and all other different drivers it has to deal with. People worry about the decisions smart cars would make in uncommon situations. Some think it is easier for human drivers to forget the possible danger in driving. ★ Many drivers still remember the accident in 2021, where a human driver fell asleep behind the wheel and the auto pilot made a wrong decision. What’s more, they are nervous about the personal information these cars might collect.

The discussion about self-driving cars is about technology, safety, and how we’ll live in the future. We’ll keep discussing if they’re good for us. Will self-driving cars become common, or will they remind us to be careful with new technology? We’ll see what the future holds.